Project Plan (Agreed June 2002)

• Background
• Context and Summary
• Timing
• Confirming the Focus
• Overall Rationale for a Discipline Strategy (and a related Departmentally-focused Strategy)
  • The Key Role of the Discipline and the Department
  • The Central Role of the Discipline
  • Disciplines as National and International Communities
• Subject Centre Participation
• Possible International Linkages and Extensions
• Outputs
• Project Structure
• Evaluation /Research
• Web Site Development
• Project Plan - revised February 2002
  

Background

" We found little evidence to suggest that synergies between teaching and research were managed or promoted at departmental or institutional level…There were some attempts to manage teaching and research workloads in departments, partly to allow more time for research. Some strategies may be having the unintended consequence of driving research and teaching apart for some staff." J.M Consulting ( 2000). "Interactions Between Research, Teaching, and Other Academic Activities": Report for HEFCE, J.M Consulting Bristol, 36.

"The strongest policy claim that derives from this Meta analysis is that universities need to set as a mission goal the improvement of the nexus between research and teaching. The goal should not be publish or perish, or teach or impeach, but we beseech you to publish and teach effectively. The aim is to increase the circumstances in which teaching and research have occasion to meet, and to provide rewards not only for better teaching or for better research but for demonstrations of the integration between teaching and research." Hattie, J. and Marsh, H.W. (1996). "The relationship between teaching and research: A Meta-analysis," quotation at p. 533, emphasis added.

Context and Summary

This national project for the Generic Subject Centre/Learning and Teaching Subject Network involves: ·

• Exploring how to embed teaching /research links in disciplinary communities;·
• Creation of generic support materials (including web site) to help further embed teaching/research links in disciplinary communities; ·
• Initially involves Five LTSN Subject Centres embedding teaching / research links in their disciplinary communities; ·
• Providing a framework, ideas and strategies that will also support other LTSN Subject Centres in developing such links.·

The project is being directed by Alan Jenkins who will provide consultancy support and resources to support the Subject Centre teams, which includes this web site that will both support the project and disseminate the resources developed by Subject Centres.

This project will both informally and formally build on/link to the FDTL 'Project Link' (2000-3) on Linking Teaching, Research and Consultancy in Built Environment Disciplines. The project 'informally' recognises that Graham Gibbs of the Centre for Higher Education Practice at the Open University , is doing a project for HEFCE (2001-2002) on "Maximising the Benefits to Teaching of Research" directed to institutional learning and teaching strategies.

Timing

The project started in January 2002 and is due to end in September 2003.

Confirming the Focus

Our focus will solely be on connecting student learning to the research done in discipline based enquiry. Thus in the case of students studying, say, art history, the aim of this project would be (through working with staff) to draw closer connections between student learning of Art History and research in Art History per se. This project is not concerned with supporting staff in doing (discipline based) pedagogic research.

Overall Rationale for a Discipline Strategy (and a related Departmentally-focused Strategy)

The Key Role of the Discipline and the Department

The research evidence is now clear that while students don't automatically benefit from (staff) research, that relationship can be a positive one, if that relationship is managed or structured (Elton 2001 and Jenkins 2000).

While national systems and institutional strategies can aid the teaching /research nexus, the department and the discipline have complementary and probably more important roles to play.

In his book on academic leadership, Paul Ramsden (1998, X11) now Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Sydney, emphasises the key role of the academic department and leadership at that level. He states: "Simply put, research activity and productivity, and the quality of teaching and learning, are influenced for better or worse by the way a department is managed or led."

Perhaps most fundamentally the department is often where teaching and research resources, including staff time and roles are most directly organised. It is for these reasons that Burton Clark (1993) sees the department as where teaching /research relations are enacted partly because it is there that disciplinary communities are organised within institutions.

Thus while this project central focus is on disciplines - see below - we think it important to also recognise and include the role of the department as an institutional focus for disciplinary activity and organisation.

The Central Role of the Discipline

A range of research studies have also shown that the form teaching /research relationships vary significantly by discipline. This is a central conclusion of research by Neumann (1995) and Rowland (1996) on the views of department heads.

Colbeck (1998) carried out a detailed study of staff from English and Physics. In English the linkage was stronger with respect to the content of the curriculum. In Physics the link lay more in the process of inquiry and the involvement of undergraduate and postgraduate students in staff research projects.

Focus groups of undergraduate (Jenkins et al 1998) and postgraduate (Lindsay et al in press ) at Oxford Brookes again point to the nature of teaching /relationships and the opportunities for strengthening them varying significantly by discipline.

Relatedly there is evidence that the nature of scholarship - both the scholarship of teaching and the scholarship for teaching varying by discipline (Healey 2000).

This emphasis on the key role of the discipline is central to the Carnegie Association's project on the Scholarship of Teaching (Huber, 2001).

Disciplines as National and International Communities.

Disciplines are also national and international communities of practice through which flow ideas on research and increasingly on teaching. That of course is the rationale for in the UK the setting up of the 24 LTSN's . While these also offer the possibility of linking these national funding organisations to cognate discipline based networks.

Subject Centre Participation in Project

While 5 Subject Centres will form the initial disciplinary core of this project, the project is designed to ensure that (eventually) all disciplines/Subject Centres can benefit.

Possible International Linkages and Extensions

Given that disciplines are international communities there are possibilities of extending the project internationally, in particular to Australia and New Zealand (through HERDSA) and perhaps to the USA (through Carnegie and /or AAHE) and Canada (through STLHE).

Such extension could include adding relevant disciplinary case studies - though in that case the linkage might (also) be through national disciplinary organisations e.g. the American Sociological Association.

The fact that Angela Brew of the University of Sydney and current President of HERDSA is willing to act as informal and unpaid advisor to the project as part of her sabbatical, is an indication of the potential international interest in - and possible extensions to - the project.

Outputs

The Project Director will be responsible for devising/providing the text for the following:

• A web site as part of the Generic Subject Centre web site - that provides material that support / exemplify strategies for linking teaching and research in course teams and departments;
• A set of generic workshop materials that will support the disciplinary project teams;
• A guide to linking and teaching and research in course teams and departments;
• A guide to linking teaching and research through disciplinary communities;
• An issue of Exchange ( a new journal for institutional managers etc ) on Linking Teaching and Research;
• Presentations/workshops at appropriate national - and possibly international conferences (the aim of the presentations is to disseminate the project to educational developers / institutional policy makers and work with them to further embed its resources into their institutional and perhaps national staff development programmes);
• Selected publications.

Each of the five Subject Centres will:

• Develop a discipline based section of the web site which, with respect to their discipline(s), provides:
  1. case studies of effective practice in linking teaching and research;
  2. an annotated bibliography on teaching /research links re these discipline(s);
  3. towards the end of the project a short c3,000 words review essay on teaching /research links in their discipline(s);
  4. links to relevant discipline based web sites;
  5. towards the end of the project provide an account of how they developed their project - and their advice to any Subject Centre /disciplinary community in developing a similar strategy. ·
• Decide and deliver a strategy to further embed teaching /research links in their disciplinary communities. Subject Centres should have considerable freedom in devising strategies that they think will be appropriate in their communities. Such may well entail using newsletters/journals, listserves, department seminars /workshops, special conferences, presentations/workshops at mainstream disciplinary conferences etc . ·
• Provide speakers etc for any special conference /presentations agreed by Project Steering Group.

While the project is directed to identifying and disseminating good practice, it also recognises that as disciplinary communities and academic institutions we have much to learn about both the nature of the links in our communities, and how best to strengthen those that are 'effective'. The project is thus directed both at tangible 'deliverables' and developing processes that support our understanding.

The specific 'actions' and 'deliverables' by the 5 initial LTSN Subject Centres include:

BioScience
Development of a dedicated section of the LTSN Bioscience web site which contains: ·

• Case studies of effective practice in linking teaching and research in the Biosciences; ·
• An annotated bibliography on teaching /research links in the Biosciences; ·
• A short review on teaching /research links in the Biosciences; ·
• A digest of the Bioscience QAA Benchmark statement and those for Agriculture, Forestry, Agricultural Sciences, Food Sciences and Consumer Sciences to illustrate areas where teaching and research are or should be linked; ·
• links to relevant web sites; ·
• Development of a workshop session, which will offer guidance, resources, discussion and exchange of ideas about linking T&R in Bioscience departments. The session will be presented within the LTSN Bioscience Events Calendar and on request from departments.

Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

• Develop dedicated pages of the GEES Web site
• Prepare an annotated bibliography
• Collect, edit and publish at least 20 case studies
• National Conference (June 30/July 1 2003)
• Prepare a review essay·
• Publish a Special Edition of Planet.

Health Sciences and Practice
A dedicated section of the Subject Centre web site, containing ·

• A report mapping current links between teaching and research in Health Sciences The map will reflect what teachers claim they do when linking teaching and research in classroom and placement settings (teaching approaches/pedagogy and the kinds of research being linked with teaching (epidemiological, practice based and pedagogical.). ·
• Document reporting on teacher evaluations of current practice in linking teaching and research. The teacher perspective will illuminate the purposes and conditions of linking teaching and research. ·
• Four detailed ethnographic case studies.each of approx.6000-10000words The case studies will illuminate the student, teacher and institutional perspectives in linking teaching and research. They will be drawn from different disciplines in Health Sciences and reflect different teaching contexts.

Further dissemination will include: An article for Exchange Magazine, Evidence based practice in health sciences; Conference paper and Journal Article.

Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism·

• A Learning Resource Guide on Linking Teaching and Research in our disciplines aimed at departments, course teams and individual staff. ·
• Summary outline findings of a focus group session of staff perception and issues ·
• Target of 12 Case study examples: 3 from each of Hospitality; Leisure; Sport; Tourism ·
• Two detailed case study research projects - one from the staff perspective and one from the student perspective ·
• We will also promote the topic via subject based events, LINK our newsletter, and our guide to current practice.

Law

• Dedicated section of UKCLE website with links and examples ·
• Bibliography relating to linking teaching and research in legal education ·
• Survey of current practice on linking teaching and research within legal education ·
• Case study template developed in the light of review of current practice ·
• 10 case studies on linking teaching and research in legal education ·
• project themes introduced and discussed at four UKCLE events

Project Structure

See Project Team

Evaluation /Research

An evaluator will be appointed to carry out both a formative and a summative evaluation of the project . That evaluator should be appointed by the Generic Centre - in consultation with the Project Director.

Web Site Development

The 'core' generic materials to be the responsibility of the Project Director on behalf of the Generic Centre. It will be responsibility of the 5 Subject Centres to develop their own section of this web site. Timings for web site development are given in the Project Plan

Project Plan - revised February 2002